Prep girls volleyball notes: Former college coach finds a home at Drake

A WELL-TRAVELED coach, who has made a fair share of stops along the way and has experience at just about every level, including college, has finally found her home at Drake High.

Lynn Hall has coached at Arizona State, UC Santa Cruz, Colgate University in New York as well as several high school programs — most recently at North Coast Section Division III champion Albany, which beat the Pirates in the finals last season. Now she's in her first year at the helm of the Drake girls volleyball program and she couldn't have found a better fit.

"People ask me 'Hey, how do you like the Drake job?,' and I tell them this is the best job I've ever taken in my life, hands down," Hall said. "With the kids and the experiences and the 'Thank you's' and the 'Yes coach.' They're just so appreciative to have someone in there that really cares about them."

Having three coaches in each of her first three years at the school, junior setter Kiki Romanik is excited to know that Hall plans to be with the program for a long time.

"It's been awesome, she has come into the program just as a solid coach for us," Romanik said. "She's going to be developing the program as the years go by and it's just going to get better and better. We have a legacy to live up to and she's going to help us do that."

With Hall's experience coaching at the college level, she also is a big benefit to players like Romanik who have dreamed of getting volleyball scholarships since they were little kids. Talking with other coaches, getting players scouted and finding programs that are a good fit for her players are all part of Hall's arsenal.

"When I left coaching college I always thought the best things about my skill set were I think I'm a good teacher, I think I'm a good motivator and I can see more for people than they can see for themselves," Hall said. "I can see where kids can fit in to another college program. I think that's a better skill set for me than being a head coach at a college or something like that."

Hall's college contacts and knowledge of that level has already paid dividends for Romanik.

"I really want to play in college and I've wanted to ever since I started playing and she's really helped me get ready for that," Romanik said. "She taught me about the speed of the game and how much of a change it is from high school to college. Finding the right colleges for me and getting colleges to look at me playing. She knows so many college coaches and has so many contacts. It's really been a big asset to me."

This season has been a little up and down for the Pirates, but the team might be peaking at the right time. Drake has won its last three MCAL matches in a row and six of its last seven overall. The Pirates qualified as the No. 5 seed for the league playoffs and hope they can make a splash.

"We really have gone unnoticed this whole season and we're finally starting to get recognized," Romanik said. "We're really pushing as a team. There's no fighting amongst our team. We all get along so well and work so well as a unit and it's really starting to show."

"They just took the mentality that nothing is going to be given to us, we have to go out there and take it," Hall added. "We want it and we just have to work hard for it."